Merkel says she is not as critical about Nord Stream 2 as Kyiv

Friday, November 2, 2018 9:00:44 AM

At a meeting with Andriy Parubiy, Ukrainian Parliament Speaker, and the heads of parliamentary groups in Kyiv ,German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she is not as critical about the Nord Stream 2 project as Kyiv and favors preserving gas transit through Ukraine after 2019.

"We know that Ukraine is against this project. I am less critical about the project and I am in favor of Ukraine having guarantees, that Ukraine will preserve its transit role," Merkel said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the state secretaries of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs had discussed the risks of Nord Stream 2 for Europe.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is supposed to pass through the Baltic Sea, connecting suppliers in Russia and consumers in Europe. The length of the pipeline will be more than 1.2 thousand km. The capacity of Nord Stream 2 will be 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The project cost is estimated at almost 10 billion euros. The consortium participants include Gazprom, Engie, OMV, Shell, BASF and Uniper.

Nord Stream 2 has received full sets of permits for the construction and operation of the gas pipeline in Germany, Finland, and Sweden. In August, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called on the EU to join in the US sanctions against Russia and block Nord Stream 2, which "undermines the EU’s energy policy." He believes that it would be cheaper to make investments in the modernization of the Ukrainian gas transmission system.